Teamsters Launch Capital Markets Program

Teamsters Launch Capital Markets Program

Teamsters Coordinate Market Clout; Push for Corporate Responsibility

December 11, 2002

(Washington, DC) — Teamster fund trustees met in Washington this week to plan an agenda focusing on corporate governance and money manager accountability. Teamster funds combined total nearly $100 billion in assets.

Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa addressed the trustees about the importance of playing an active role in the capital markets.

“Together we can influence corporate behavior and make companies more accountable to Teamster shareholders and members,” Hoffa said. “By increasing coordination of our funds, we will restore integrity to the U.S. capital markets.”

California State Treasurer Phil Angelides, a trustee of the first and third largest pension funds—California Public Employees Retirement System (CALPERS) and California State Teachers Retirement System (CALSTERS)—joined Teamster trustees at this historic meeting.

“No reform effort will be complete unless we, as owners of American corporations, commit to exercising the power of the purse to bring about a new era of corporate responsibility,” said Angelides.

“We must hold our money managers and service providers accountable for representing the interests of our members and plan participants,” said C. Thomas Keegel, Teamsters General Secretary Treasurer, “Not just the interest of their corporate clients.”

The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is taking the lead among institutional investors mobilizing in the fight for greater corporate accountability and corporate governance reforms.

Founded in 1903, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters represents more than 1.4 million hardworking men and women throughout the United States and Canada.